1.08.2009

Hoover & Bush: Devastating Latinos

With Barack Obama preparing to assume a nation with a bankrupt economy and a social fabric in tatters, the parallels between Hoover and Bush are striking -- including how the two failed Republican presidencies impacted Latinos:

1) Like Hoover's depression, George the 43rd's crashing of the U.S. economy is having a disproportionately negative impact on Puerto Rico. With an 'official' unemployment of double the national rate at 13%, the island is hemorrhaging jobs as a new wave of islanders flee in search of jobs on the U.S. mainland. Nationally, Latino unemployment has skyrocketed from 4.9% in '06 to 8.8% last fall.

2) Hoover forced 'repatriation' of Mexican workers, including arresting and imprisoning them in 'detention centers', stripping the detainees of their rights and property, and removing them to Mexico. Bush has presided over chillingly similar policies with equally devastating results. Scores of Latinos have been rounded up, families split, rights ignored. Many have been put in detention centers where a number have died under mysterious circumstances. Countless Latinos have been 'repatriated' including U.S. citizens.